Adelaide security researcher nurturing students' love of a good hack

A group of nearly 100 University of Adelaide computer science students is beginning their third day in a computer-security intensive program that was co-ordinated by a School of Computer Science security researcher and PhD candidate.

The program, which ran over three days this week, was delivered in response to student demand as a series of six focused workshops, helping first and second-year computer science students to learn more about the key issues in data security and hacking protection.

The hands-on sessions – in which students were given the chance to run penetration-testing exercises against provided honeypot computers – covered topics such as cross-site scripting, cryptography, reverse engineering, SQL injections, buffer overflow and other attacks.

They had proved quite popular with the students, School of Computer Science research associate Yuval Yarom told CSO Australia, who have often watched the security space with interest but could not access formal university training to extend themselves further in the area.

“They come because it's an interesting area and I hope they will consider going into it,” said Yarom, who has been working in the security industry since 1994 and has published in industry journals on a range of cryptographic and other topics.

“Australia needs those skills, and the industry needs these skills,” he continued. “It's a pity that we don't get them out of university.”

The lack of formal university training in IT security had meant students got a skewed vision of the opportunities available in the industry – even to the point where many believed there was more money to be made in writing and selling malware than in legitimate, and more interesting, IT security careers.

“Unfortunately people who learn these skills outside tend to have the wrong ideas about the purpose of the activity, and they go a little too black-hat,” he explains.

“It's very hard to make money hacking; if you have the right skills, you can make more money by protecting against hacking. On average, attackers do not make too much money.”

With few Australian universities offering formal and hands-on training in IT security, workshops like Yarom's are a small step towards filling the gap, he believes.

The University of Adelaide sessions will continue on a regular basis – probably once a week – and will be increasingly directed and taught by students as the idea gains momentum.

“Students came up with the idea, and I want them to be as involved as possible,” Yarom explains. “I think they learn the best when they teach. Once we have a bit more experience we will know better.”

Latest Videos

Hear from Invictus Games Sydney 2019 CEO, Patrick Kidd OBE and Head of Technology, @James-d-smith -share their insights on how they partnered with Unisys to protect critical data over an open, public WiFi solution.

With so much change all the time, how can executives best prepare their businesses to meet the security challenges of the coming years? CSO Australia, in conjunction with Mimecast, explored this question in an interactive Webinar that looks at how the threat landscape has evolved – and what we can expect in 2019 and beyond.

According to new research conducted by the Ponemon Institute, Australia and New Zealand have the highest levels of data breaches out of the nine countries investigated. This was linked to heavy investment in security detection and an under-investment in security and vulnerability response capabilities

Copyright 2019 IDG Communications. ABN 14 001 592 650. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of IDG Communications is prohibited.